It says “Is this chaos ?? No Hatem has ever stood a trial” depicting from a silhouette of a low ranking police officer.
Hatem and the Silhouette depict the character “Hatem”, the corrupted low-ranking police officer in Youssef Chahin ‘s last film “Is This chaos !?”.

As I expected and predicted in the first post, the Ministry of interior “MOI” is trying to contain the anger of the people in the Upper Egyptian city.
The Assistant minister of interior for South Upper Egypt affairs traveled to Luxor and presented his condolence personally to the family of Talaat Shabeeb.

The Luxor security directorate was going to organize some sort of vigil, oh yes a vigil at Al-Awamiyah to pay their respect to the victim and his family !!!

I am amazed not because they are not holding candles and would carry banners but because those are Egyptian police officers doing that in the heart of Upper Egypt.

There are media reports that the police officer involved in the death of Shabib was transferred from the police station and he is investigated by the MOI internally.
The Prosecutor General also is investigating the case.

Moving to Ismailia , in the heart of Suez Canal cities.

A similar incident took place last Thursday involving the death of a citizen in police custody and strangely it has the same details like Shabeeb.

A veterinarian called Afify Hassan was arrested while working in his wife’s pharmacy on Thursday by a police force. They allegedly claimed that he was a drug dealer and that he had a criminal record.
After few hours of his custody, Dr. Hassan passed away due to a heart attack.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

On Friday, Luxor governorate witnessed a huge protest that continued for hours by citizens who protested against police brutality and the ministry of interior.
That huge protest which started after Friday prayers escalated to become a rally which the security forces tried to disperse but failed.

Part of the protest in Luxor city "We are all Talaat Shabeeb"

Late Talaat Shabeeb

The citizens were protesting the alleged beating till death of Mr. Talaat Shabeeb while in police custody on Tuesday and the mistreatment of citizens in Al-Awamiyah district in the Upper Egyptian governorate where the deceased used to live.

The story of 47-years-old Talaat Shaheeb was arrested from a café over alleged drug possession started on Tuesday.
The police said that Shabeeb was fine at the police station ,then he fell ill and so he was transferred to Luxor international hospital where he died there.
The police also claimed Shabeeb was a thug and a drug addict.
His family and the eye witnesses in Al-Awamiyah say that he was arrested after a feud with a police officer at the café.

Eye witnesses say that the father of four did not have Tramadol pills and actually the officer and their low ranking officers had the pills with them and they saw how a low ranking officer “they know by name” gave the pills to his boss who said that he was arresting Shabeeb because of the pills taking him to Al-Awamiyah police station.

There, he was beaten to death after half an hour of his arrest according to his family.

His family says that he was transferred to Luxor international hospital as a dead man and they have evidence on that.
The smoking gun in their case was the Luxor International hospital's official medical report which stated “The deceased arrived the hospital as a dead body at 1 AM”

Thursday, November 26, 2015

And the second stage of the Parliamentary elections kicked off on Sunday and finished on Monday.
I did not write anything or cover it. I did not go to the polling stations as I have done before.
I did not do that not because I find those elections are useless and boring “Which are actually true” but because I am simply sick and have got this nasty flu and cough that did not make me sleep for days. I also had problems with ISP and internet connections that were solved today.
I do not know if it is me online, but I find people are less interested in the results of this stage in the elections.
It is less noisy in a way or another like the first stage despite we are speaking about Cairo and Delta governorates.
Despite the media coverage , the people seem to care less actually following other local and international news. I noticed that people in Egypt were interested in following the news of that awful suicide bombing in Al-Arish that targeted the elections supervising judges in their“Swiss-inn” Hotel earlier Tuesday killing at least seven people were killed. The attack that killed a judge and security personnel was important to the people than knowing the results of the elections.
The people are not even interested in knowing who won in North Sinai or how the political situation there aside from that never ending military operation.
Needless to say, there was nothing in the second stage for real.

The voters, mostly elderly at one of the polling stations waiting
By Mostafa Bassim

I think the turnout in that phase was not that high than the first phase of the first stage.
Ironically, it seems that people forgot that there were elections in 13 governorates above them in Cairo despite all the campaigns and banners with faces of candidates.
They do not speak about the elections or discuss the results.
Still, it was in high in rural areas than big cities. Again, senior citizens were seen more often in the polling stations than youth.
More ex-NDPians and Controversial figures made it in this round.
Personally, I think we are in front of some political apathy because the majority of the people feel that there is no use as they see the old corrupted faces returning once again to the parliament using their old ways whether through electoral bribes or electoral lists.
Now here are some belated quick facts and numbers about this stage in the parliamentary race in Egypt.
Already from 3,067 candidates in 13 governorates competing over 267 seats in the 2015 parliament.
The 13 governorates were Cairo, Qalioubiya, Daqahliya, Monufia, Gharbia, Kafr El-Sheikh, Sharkia, Damietta, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, North Sinai, and South Sinai.
When it comes to the electoral lists based seat, we had about 195 candidates in 4 lists “In the love of Egypt, Al-Nour party, the Republic alliance and Independence current” competing over 45 seats in Cairo and another 15 seats in East Delta.

Sunday, November 22, 2015

And it seems that there is a new crisis between Egypt and Sudan thanks to the police brutality.
Since the start of November, the crisis has been growing and the Egyptian media did not care or cover it.
We all know about it from social media and Sudanese media in Egypt unfortunately.
It seems that several Sudanese citizens were arrested and mistreated by Egyptian security forces for allegedly foreign exchange issue.
According to the Sudanese community in Egypt , not less 15 Sudanese citizens were arrested and mistreated in Downtown Cairo police stations for allegedly illegal foreign exchange and fraud in the past few weeks.
Most of the reports revolve around Abdeen and Azbakia police stations in Downtown Cairo.
One of those incidents is creating huge anger in Sudan currently: The incident of Mr.Yahia Zakaria.
Mr. Zakaria came to Cairo accompanying his sick son and his friend.
According to Sudanese press , Zakaria and his friend were entering a foreign exchange company to exchange US dollars with Egyptian pounds when they were arrested by under-covered police officers.

A scan for the Sudanese newspaper with a report aboutthe torture of one the Sudanese citizens in Cairo"17 November"

The 50-years old Sudanese man and his friend spent their night at a police station in downtown Cairo where they were allegedly harassed racially.
Next Day, they were referred to the prosecution where it turned out that Zakaria had $500 and LE4,000 while his friend had $1600 and 2000 Sudanese pound.
The two men were released by the prosecution but instead of walking free, the police referred them to the National security after three more days in detention.

Friday, November 20, 2015

And ISIL aka Daesh revealed the secret behind the crash the Russian Plane in Egypt and ironically a Schweppes Golden can be allegedly behind it !!
The militant group claimed responsibility for the crash of the Russian plane officially in the 12th issue of its Dabiq magazine revealing its secret: An improvised explosive device in a soda can be
planted on the board of the doomed plane.

A screen cap from Dabiq magazine

Yes according to the Forward of the glossy militant magazine, the militant group “discovered a way to compromise the security at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport and resolving to bring down a plane belonging to a nation in the American-led Western coalition against the Islamic State, the target was changed to a Russian plane. A bomb was smuggled onto the airplane”.
The IED bomb was allegedly made of C-4 explosives planted in a Schweppes Gold soda drink “Pineapple flavor”

It is worth to mention that Daesh-affiliated group “Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis” {ABM} claimed responsibility for that twice.

The Sinai-based group which started as Al-Qaeda affiliated group then swore allegiance in 2014 to Daesh claimed responsibility of the same day, but most analysts thought that they were bluffing because at first it was believed that they downed by a missile.

The group which named itself “Sinai” province issued another statement claiming responsibility for the Plane’s crash but refused to reveal how.

Of course , they say that they did to avenge for the Russian air strikes in Syria against ISIL.
The official Egyptian-led investigation team has not announced yet the reason behind the crash that killed over 200 people, mostly Russians.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Today, Non-Islamist Pro-25 January revolution protesters and supporters commemorated the anniversary of Mohamed Mahmoud clashes mostly online as usual.
In case you forgot, the Clashes of Mohamed Mahmoud erupted in November 2011 following the violent dispersal of a sit-in against the Supra-Constitution principles proposed by SCAF.
The clashes took place at Mohamed Mahmoud street and surrounding streets. Not less than 40 protesters were killed and hundreds were injured.
Many protesters lost their eyes in those clashes.
Strangely we used to have parliamentary elections during then just like now and I remember that the Muslim Brotherhood leading figures were afraid that those clashes would spoil the elections.
In November 2012, the clashes renewed once again between protesters and security forces during the commemoration of the clashes in 2011.
It feels like ages !!
In November 2013, Once again the clashes erupted when protesters protested in Tahrir square and one protester was killed during the clashes.
In November 2015, a small group of protesters organized a stand at 6 October bridge Thursday afternoon.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

And we woke up early Tuesday to find Russia announcing officially that what brought down the Russian airliner in Sinai was a bomb.

Putin and his men at the meeting which was filmed
"Kremlin website"

In Moscow, we found out that President Putin held a meeting on the crash of the Russian airliner. with the head of Federal Security Service “FSB” Director Alexander Bortnikov.
Bortnikov announced in the meeting that through examining the passengers’ personal belongings and luggage and fragments of the plane that crashed in Sinai, traces of foreign-made explosives were found.
According to the FSB experts, “ self-made explosive device equivalent up to 1 kg of TNT was set off on board”
In other direct word, it was a terrorist act according to the Russian government.
From his side, El-Sisi’s best friend vowed to “find the perpetrators anywhere on the planet and punish them”. He also added that Russia “will act in compliance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which envisages the right of a state to self-defence.”
This is what article 51 of the United Nations charter says:

Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.

Does the right of the self-defence of Russia stops in Russia and the ISIS stronghold there or will it be extended to include Sinai as well ?? This is the question of the hour in Egypt.
Of course that meeting which was filmed for the Russian public to show much Putin cared for his people, that means Putin already knew about the findings of FSB hours earlier and his words were prepared carefully.
I do not know if the Egyptian ambassador in Moscow was informed by those results prior to that meeting or not but if he did not then we will be having a bigger problem.
The Russians also announced a US$ 50 million for anyone with information about the perpetrators.
It is worth to mention that ISIS-affiliated and North Sinai-based Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis “ABM” aka Sinai province claimed responsibility for the attack without giving any details on how they did it.
After an hour or even less from this announcement, we found Reuters reporting that according to security officials in Egypt, 17 Sharm El-Sheikh airport staff were detained including 2 men “Ground crew” suspected to be involved in planting the bomb on the board of the plane.
The report including this very interesting detail quoting unnamed Egyptian security official.

The second security official said CCTV footage showed a baggage handler carrying a suitcase from an airport building to another man, who was loading luggage onto the doomed airliner from beneath the plane on the runway.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

And Friday 13th is officially now associated with modern bloody memories in France and Europe following the deadly Paris attacks.
Over 120 people are killed and other 200 are injured including those are in a very critical condition. It is the biggest attack against France and its capital Paris since WWII.
It is also the biggest terrorist attack in Europe since 2004 if I am not mistaken.

Most of the victims are French, but there are 10 nationalities among the victims including Two Tunisian girls and One Algerian violin player.
Egypt got one injured, a 26-years old young man who is currently in a critical condition. He was in his way to watch the football game at Stade De France when he was injured in the first suicide bombing.
Sadly enough, Waleed was accompanying his mother and his brother who is suffering cancer and is going to have a surgery in Paris.
People should pray for Waleed’s mother not lose her boys as well the rest of the injured and their families.
Not surprisingly, Daesh aka ISIL declared its responsibility for the attack today releasing their statements in Arabic, French and English as well an audio message.
For hours yesterday, I was glued in front of TV watching the live coverage of the attack whether on France 24 or BBC Arabic or Al-Jazeera.
Al-Jazeera hosted a French MP, who is a member in the Foreign affairs committee and he said that the French intelligence had info that some sort of attack was going to happen.
Those words made me wonder if the Russian Plane Crash was actually some sort of a warning to the Western countries that there would be future attacks in Europe and that’s why we saw a huge reaction from UK, France and Russia.
Now 90% of the reports speak about a bomb planted among the luggage.
Everyone is speaking about a bomb and Egypt is not saying anything.
Then we got Beirut’s Southern suburb attack where over 40 people were killed because they were shiite.
Then came Paris !!
It came at the same time ISIL is losing land Iraq as it lost Sinjar to US-backed Kurdish troops.
Does ISIL compensate its losses in Iraq with lone wolves attacks in Europe !??

Thursday, November 12, 2015

I think after what happened in Beheira and Alexandria as well other places in Nile Delta from heavy rain and floods, Egyptians should think more about the dramatic climate change in Egypt.
Not less than 30 people were officially killed in the past two weeks due to the heavy rains in Beheira and Alexandria, especially in Beheira where a complete village “Ufona” in Wadi Al-Natroun was drowned.
The death toll of the people who died because of the heavy rain already could be more if you take in account the testimonies of the villagers in “Ufona” who insist that there are tens of dead bodies in the village under water.
Here are photos from Ufona.

According to his lawyers including Khaled Ali , he was released from detention at military intelligence.
Early Monday morning we woke up to know that independent investigative reporter and human rights activist Hossam Bahgat is going to be detained for 4 days pending investigations according to the military prosecution on charges of spreading false information.

The Secretary-General has learned with concern of the detention of Egyptian human rights defender Hossam Bahgat on 8 November, reportedly in connection with an investigation in which he is accused of publishing false information that harms national interest. Mr. Bahgat is a member of UNDP's Global Civil Society Advisory Council and the founder of the group Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. This is just the latest in a series of detentions of human rights defenders and others that are profoundly worrying to the Secretary-General. The Secretary-General again underscores the importance of safeguarding freedom of speech and association in Egypt. He strongly believes that pluralism and vibrant civil society are key for achieving long-term stability in the country, including the guarantee that all peaceful voices are heard and represented.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Investigative reporter Hossam Bahgat is currently spending the night at the military prosecution after a long day where he was interrogated allegedly over an investigative report he made in Mada Masr last month.

Bahgat investigated and brought to us the story with names and photos as well dates and testimonies from the relatives of those officers allegedly accused of plotting a coup.

Thinking about it now, it was one hell of a daring decision to publish this report by Bahgat’s name in the byline like that in Mada Masr as we are speaking about Egypt 2015 and not Egypt 2011 after all.
After nearly 8 hours, founder of Mada Masr and her editor-in-chief Lina Attalah got a very short call from Bahgat telling her that he was referred to military prosecution with nothing official or clear about the reasons behind that.

As per a phone call from @hossambahgat, he is accused, moved to military prosecution, awaiting investigator. Charges remain unclear.

In a short time, nearly 25 lawyers attended the investigation with Hossam Bahgat at the military prosecution including a lawyer from Egypt’s journalists syndicate “despite he is not a member in the syndicate” and former Presidential candidate Khaled Ali.

First of all, till this moment we do not have anything official that confirms the Russian Plane was downed by a bomb and the possibility of the MANPAD is out of question by many experts due to the laws of the physics.

From Sharm El-Sheikh 'Asmaa Wagih/Reuters"

I am not an expert, but I did some work and studies about terrorist and militant attacks in Sinai peninsula so I assume that I know a thing or two about the situation there.

Yes, Islamic State-affiliated Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis “ABM” or as they like to call themselves “Sinai province” did several terrorist attacks outside this zone against mostly the security forces in several areas including Cairo, Mansoura and North Coast. But their main focus is in this area.

According to all experts, evidence and what we have on the ground, ABM’s current zone of operations against security forces as well the security forces aka armed forces operations against ABM is in the North of Sinai.

Recently, there are less attacks against security forces than the past, especially that one of its dangerous masterminds “Hisham Al-Ashamawy” has departed it to return back to Al-Qaeda shifting his fight to the West of the country as well the military operations against the militant group from time to time.

Yet, I believe the current Egyptian administration’s security and military strategy as well political strategy for North Sinai should be changed immediately to have more progressive and more open policies to include the local people of North Sinai to their side.

I fear that the government is not killing terrorism with that "burn-it-all" policies and mass punishment but rather fueling its future.

People in Rafah already lost a huge source of income with the decision of Egyptian armed forces to destroy the tunnels to Gaza and to turn the area into a buffer zone especially there have not been true development economic projects in North Sinai for nearly 30 years.

The people in North Sinai are actually caught between the mistreatment of security forces and the beheadings of ABM if they dare to help the Armed forces against them.

You cannot beat terrorism without long-term political and economic solutions to the people of North Sinai in a nutshell with my all due respect.

People have been tired of saying this during the time of Mubarak when actually the seeds of ABM were planted and grew or even after Mubarak with three different administrations that care less about Sinai or North Sinai.

2-Sharm El-Sheikh is in South Sinai.
Generally, there is a huge difference between North and South Sinai and it is not about the location or the nature , simply the tribes of South Sinai have got economic interests there with all the tourism out there unlike North Sinai tribes that got nothing. It is like a different reality.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Just from hours ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the suspension of all Russian passenger flights to Egypt until the cause of the Russian plane crash in Sinai is revealed.
He also gave his orders to the Russian government to work on the return of the Russian tourists in

Egypt.

Tourists departing Sharm El-Sheikh airport earlyFriday "Reuters"

In other words, Putin orders the evacuation of Russian tourists from all over the country.
The decision comes hours after the decision of UK and what it caused.
According to Russian media, there are not less than 70,000 Russian tourists in Egypt.
This decision was issued after the meeting of Putin with security and aviation officials in Moscow.
Before that meeting, the head of the Russian Federal Security service called for the suspension of all Russian flights to Egypt.
Of course, a man like him for sure presented what was enough to convince the Russian president to take such decision without talking to the Egyptians.
This is even a bigger blow to the Egyptian government because this is Russia, the so-called Sisi’s faithful friend.
Well, the faithful friend suspended the flights to Egypt not only Sharm El-Sheikh in clear direct words.
Russia is one of the main members in the investigation team when it comes to the Russian Plane crash along with France and Ireland, Egypt and surprisingly Germany.
It turned out that Germany was involved in the investigation by the request of Egypt.
Of course today was one hell of a day in Sharm El-sheikh airport with a lot of drama and scandals of real.
More countries are issuing travel warning about Egypt. We got now UK, France, Russia, Spain, South Korea ,Belgium and Holland.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Hours following the arrival of the Egyptian President to London , the British Government surprised the whole world and Egypt by issuing a warning to its citizens about air flights to Sharm El-SheikhRussian airliner crash.

The Mirror Front page on Thursday

after the
According to the statement issued by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth office , “it is advised against all but essential travel by air to Sharm El-Sheikh “ as according to the information the British government got from a range of sources concerning “ The Russian airliner crash” , there is a significant possibility that crash was caused by an explosive device on board the aircraft. Britain is also going to send a team to check the security measures in Sharm El-sheikh airport.

And the words “caused by an explosive device on board of the aircraft” were used by foreign government officials finally !!!!!!

This statement does not advise against the travel to Egypt nor to Sinai or Sharm El-Sheikh in general, it only advised against the travel by air which is the only way for Most British people to reach to Sharm El-Sheikh.

Now personally, I know it is a strange thing because officially UK is not part of the investigations led by Egypt and the investigations have not finished yet when it comes to the Black Box.

Egypt is leading the investigations along with Russia “Kogalymavia is a Russian airliner and most of the passengers are Russians”, France “ Because the Plane was an Airbus A-321” and Ireland “The Plane was owned by an Irish company and was leased to the Russian airliner, it is also registered in Ireland”.

The U.S news channels were reporting about this possibility from an early time.
On Sunday, CBS News reported that a “U.S. infrared satellite detected a heat flash over the Sinai at the time the Russian plane went down.” The report was clear that the “The data is still being analyzed in an effort to determine what caused the flash. One possibility is a bomb, but an explosion in a fuel tank or engine as the result of a mechanical failure is also possible.” It is worth to mention that Islamic State-affiliated/Sinai based-Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis "Sinai province" claimed responsibility for downing the plane without giving any details on how they did it.

US officials told U.S-based ABC news that they intercepted extremists communications about the airliner crash.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

A new heavy rain wave has hit the country and not only Alexandria drowned earlier today once again but also we got governorates like Matrouth , Kafr El-Sheikh , Behaira , Monufia , Gharbia and Giza as recently.
The heavy rains started after the thunderstorm that started on Tuesday.
It began like that.

Not less than 18 people were killed today across the country because of that rain wave.
Despite Alexandria is capturing all the media attention yet the situation in Behaira is far worse but there are no cameras to record what is happening there.

On Tuesday , El- Nadeem center for Rehabilitation of victims of violence launched a week-long campaign against forced disappearance in Egypt.
The campaign is called “Stop the Forced disappearance” and it is about the increasing reports of forced disappearance cases in Egypt for activists, protesters and also normal citizens.
The campaign started with dozens of human rights activists announcing they would have a hunger strike for one day in solidarity with Mrs. Maha Mekaway, the wife of lawyer and Constitution party member Ashraf Shehata who has disappeared since January.

Maha Mekaway and her husband Ashraf Shehata

Mekawy has been on a hunger strike for two weeks.
Mrs. Mekaway knew from several sources that her husband was detained by security forces while the ministry of interior denies that he is detained in the first place.
Unfortunately, human rights activists and social media began to know more about the forced disappearance cases when Esraa El-Taweel, who is a former blogger and freelance photographer disappeared along her two friends Omar and Sohip in June. They were lucky somehow and appeared in detention despite all the hardships they are facing now.
Omar and Sohip are facing a military trial while El-Taweel is still detained for 45 days pending investigations.
During June, I remember that there were many cases of forced disappearances mostly for April 6 Youth members because the political movement dared and called for a strike.
Luckily,those members appeared in police stations and were released later.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

On Monday, Photographer Esraa El-Taweel made headlines when she appeared in front of the judge who extended her temporary detention for 45 days.

Esraa El-Taweel heading to the judge's panel "Tahrir newspaper"

The 23-years old student burst into tears in front of the judge, in front of the lawyers and in front of the cameras that captured her most vulnerable moments while crying for her own freedom.

Esraa El-Taweel crying 'El-Tahrir newspaper'

Esraa El-Taweel crying 'El-Tahrir newspaper'

Esraa El-Taweel crying 'El-Tahrir newspaper'

Esraa El-Taweel was forcibly disappeared along her two friends Omar and Sohip in early June and then resurfaced after three weeks later in two different cases.
El-Taweel is accused of belonging to a banned group and sending false news abroad to defame the Egyptian government as well disturbing the society’s peace !!